Megyn Kelly launched her new magazine at NBC Sunday, and the stakes couldn’t have been much higher for either. Kelly, now among the highest paid personalities on network news (nearly $20 million per year), left Fox News for the network earlier this year, and will most likely secure another role on the morning schedule later this year, in addition to this one.

Her lead-off piece was about the second most famous leader on the planet, Vladmir Putin. For her, the results were mixed. For Putin, the result was a slam dunk.

In a wide-ranging interview that led Kelly’s inaugural broadcast, Putin spoke at length and unchallenged — and even appeared to have mastered a skill that American pundits spend years developing, the “pull-out quote,” AKA the memorable soundbite:

“You people are so creative over there,” he quipped. “Good job. Your lives must be boring.”

Then, this one: “Have you all lost your senses over there?”

Good job, indeed. Maybe Putin missed his calling — as a U.S. cable news primetime host.

The best part of Kelly’s inaugural “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly” began in the opening moments, with Kelly moderating a panel at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Cue to a tight shot of Kelly, who explained that the “normally wonkish” discussion became “heated” when she asked Putin about cyber interference in the U.S. election: “I saw what was happening,” he said, via the translator. “It was a big surprise for me too. What they are saying is just nuts. I never know where people spreading disinformation is coming from.”

The one-on-one followed. Kelly asked the right questions — Russian cyber interference, former U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and so on — and he overwhelmed her with word clouds. “What fingerprints or hoof-prints or horn-prints? What are you talking about? IP addresses? They can be invented, you know? There are a lot of specialists who can even make it so it comes from your home IP address as if your 3-year-old daughter carried out the attack.”

Kelly stared at him, and no followup came, despite an obvious one: What the heck is a “horn-print?”

“I will tell you something you already know,” he prefaced one answer.

His interpreter — who sounded indignant — located an occasional colloquialism, like “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

Putin, or his translator, was dismissive of every question: “[American] presidents come and go . . . we know more or less what’s going to happen.”

That interview with Putin was hilarious. Apparently NBC was so excited they posted a tweet a few hours before about Putin having damaging info on our president, then had to retract it when the actual interview was aired. Classic tactic.

That interview with Putin was hilarious. Apparently NBC was so excited they posted a tweet a few hours before about Putin having damaging info on our president, then had to retract it when the actual interview was aired. Classic tactic.

That interview with Putin was hilarious. Apparently NBC was so excited they posted a tweet a few hours before about Putin having damaging info on our president, then had to retract it when the actual interview was aired. Classic tactic.

NBC was also the network who pulled the "he's black" stunt regarding George Zimmerman, a great American.

NBC's Megyn Kelly got off to the modest start in the ratings race with her Sunday night news magazine debut, finishing third in total viewers behind ABC's NBA Finals pregame special and a rerun of "60 Minutes" on CBS.

Megyn Kelly's show on NBC fell to its lowest in viewer ratings and total viewers on Sunday, Variety reports.

"Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly," which airs at 7 p.m., drew a 0.4 rating among adults aged 18 to 49 and pulled in only 3.1 million viewers, its worst overall viewership in the show's short time on the air. The show drew 6.1 million viewers in its debut on June 4 when Kelly interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kelly was hired by NBC this year for a reported $17.5 million annual salary after a highly-rated run at Fox News Channel. She is debuting a new morning show in September before a live studio audience but so far, her start at the network hasn't made quite the splash NBC had anticipated.

"By all measures, her 'Sunday Night' effort has been a disaster," Variety TV critic Sonia Saraiya wrote in late June. "Her interviews have been either ridiculed or loathed by the rest of the press, and the ratings reflect a distinct lack of interest."

Kelly has had some high-profile controversies over the last month, including backlash after Infowars host Alex Jones released recordings of a pre-interview between Kelly and him where Kelly told Jones the segment wouldn't be a "gotcha hit piece."

Megyn Kelly's show on NBC fell to its lowest in viewer ratings and total viewers on Sunday, Variety reports.

"Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly," which airs at 7 p.m., drew a 0.4 rating among adults aged 18 to 49 and pulled in only 3.1 million viewers, its worst overall viewership in the show's short time on the air. The show drew 6.1 million viewers in its debut on June 4 when Kelly interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kelly was hired by NBC this year for a reported $17.5 million annual salary after a highly-rated run at Fox News Channel. She is debuting a new morning show in September before a live studio audience but so far, her start at the network hasn't made quite the splash NBC had anticipated.

"By all measures, her 'Sunday Night' effort has been a disaster," Variety TV critic Sonia Saraiya wrote in late June. "Her interviews have been either ridiculed or loathed by the rest of the press, and the ratings reflect a distinct lack of interest."

Kelly has had some high-profile controversies over the last month, including backlash after Infowars host Alex Jones released recordings of a pre-interview between Kelly and him where Kelly told Jones the segment wouldn't be a "gotcha hit piece."

Megyn Kelly failed to hit yet another embarrasing new viewership low in what could have been her last Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly show on NBC.

But the final episode of her program’s “initial” run, which was pulled at least two episodes earlier than planned, still failed to beat out the years-old Dateline rerun that ran in Kelly’s time slot during the Fourth of July holiday weekend when many Americans were not even in front of their television screens.

Kelly got 3.5 million total viewers on Sunday, slightly up from the 3.1 million total viewers she got the last time her show was in the 7 p.m. time slot two weeks ago. But the years-old Dateline rerun that ran during the Fourth of July weekend got 3.73 million total viewers. Kelly’s show has failed to beat that years-old rerun since she returned, proving that absence does not make the heart grow fonder when it comes to Kelly.

Again, her show failed to beat reruns of America’s Funniest Home Videos and 60 Minutes.

Kelly starts her one-hour morning show in September, and NBC employees are reportedly livid that the network decided to name the program Megyn Kelly Today, essentially hitching Today’s star to Kelly’s wagon, even though the vapid former Fox News talent has shown that she may be in over her head at NBC without any natural base of support except for disgruntled “Never Trumpers.”

As Breitbart News noted, “network executives, who reportedly have been freaking out about Kelly’s poor ratings, are probably praying that Kelly simply does no more harm than she has already done in her short time at the network.”

Breitbart News has also documented Kelly’s disastrous debut at the network:

Kelly has alienated everyone except the small band of “Never Trumpers” on Twitter and anti-Trump pundits who, so desperate for affirmation and attention to make up for their numerous insecurities, gleefully allow themselves to be used as the legacy media’s useful idiots. The only silver lining for Today may be that Kelly’s tremendously bad ratings may have given Matt Lauer plenty of job security.

Kelly’s ratings were so terrible that NBC executives were reportedly even considering unloading her contract and trying to get Fox News to take her back. But a high-ranking Fox News official told Breitbart News that Kelly “would not be welcomed back” at the network.

As Breitbart News has previously noted, “NBC looks like the Houston Texans when they foolishly tried to build their franchise around former Denver Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler at the start of last year. When Kelly went to NBC, a television executive told CNN that if Kelly fails, she could end up ‘fading into obscurity’ just like Osweiler went from ‘the penthouse to the outhouse.’”